Meet Lynka Smith of Inner Strength Mental Health

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lynka Smith.

Lynka, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I began working at Wal Mart as a cashier at 16. I saved all of my money. When I graduated, I wanted to go to college and knew that my parents didn’t save any money for me to go to school. I soon met my future husband and I ran out of money. We decided to go into the military to serve our country, but he hurt his back and they wouldn’t take him. I then joined the Air Force and got married. After I left the Air Force I returned home to become a nurse.

After 911 decided to serve my country again, this time in the Navy as a nurse and I accepted a Navy scholarship. Served at Portsmouth Naval Hospital helping active duty members and their families with cancer treatment and psychiatric issues. After leaving the Navy I moved to Texas and served the state of Texas working as a case manager for cancer patients. This is when I decided to go back to school. I got accepted to UT Houston SON. I changed my major the second semester to Psych nursing and then transferred to Harris County Psychiatric Center to obtain new experience with patients who had mental health issues.

Worked a 40 hour week while attending UT nurse practitioner school. Graduated UT and started looking for work and interview with a physician who asked me what my long-term goal was. I told the physician that “I wanted to do what all of us want, open my own practice”. He looked at me puzzled and said “Oh, Y’all can do that? I didn’t think Y’all could do that”. I told him yes we could do that. This left a sour taste in my mouth and made me angry. He then offered me a job which I turned down.

When looking for a physician to be my collaborator and having a very hard time in the area, the running feeling was that they felt I was a big liability and that I could not succeed because I was only a nurse, I became even more driven to prove all of the physicians wrong. I thought that – If I could go through boot camp and Navy officer training, no one was going to stop my dream. I wanted to be able to provide service that I would want to have. I know that the only way that this is possible is to not accept insurance. Insurance makes you have to see so many people per day to make any money. I wanted to get to know my patients, make them feel part of a team and be there for them. I have a very low patient census and I wanted to be able to be small, but not this small.

I currently text, email, look up information for and send things to my patients. I wanted to provide better care on a more personal human level. I feel that as a nurse with 15 plus years of working to help people, I have learned a lot about how people want to be treated. I do not find that most physicians have learned this. I say why chose a nurse over a doctor…. and I use the line from Meet the Fockers about why he decided to become a nurse instead of a physician. He says that he wanted to be able to provide better care at a personal level. I believe this – I truly believe that nurses provide a better more personalized service to their patients.

Of course, this is not true for all of us or all physicians. But I do know that I currently have a patient that actually came from the physician who gave me the push to do this by his comment and she said the reason she was looking for another provider is because she wanted to “not feel like just a number”.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Learning about web design – taking a website that I purchased from the other company and making it mine. Learning about legal stuff, writing up policies, consent forms and fee schedules. Learning my EHR system and compiling others questions into how I wanted it and developing my own templates for patients to fill out information. Taking cash only and the lack of patients willing to not use their insurance for care. Having to find information to give to my patients (not already gathered as in an established practice).

Inner Strength Mental Health – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I provide assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning, medication management and follow-up for mental health issues. I can also provide talk therapy. I am just starting and I am not well known. I am most proud that I am a veteran owned company. And a woman-owned company. I am a small business who wants to provide a better service than others who take insurance and have the patient trust me and feel that I am there for them. I want to provide care that I would want my family to have.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Having a patient cry and tell me that she feels no one else would spend so much time and effort on her and she is thankful to me to be helping her and sticking with her.
Being able to pay myself!

Pricing:

• New patient assessment $220 -60 min
• Follow-up visit – $120 – 20 min

Contact Info:

• Address: 4501 Cartwright Rd, Suite 505 Missouri City, TX 77459
• Website: http://www.innerstrengthmh.com
• Phone: 832-429-5936
• Email: lynka@innerstrengthmh.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/innerstrengthmh/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/inner-strength-mental-health-missouri-city
• Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/profile/391739 https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynka-smith-45181478/

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